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Washington Post Names Publisher

Katharine Weymouth will become publisher of The Washington Post, its parent company announced on Thursday. The move passes that title to the fourth generation of the family that has controlled the paper for 75 years.

Ms. Weymouth, who has worked in the company since 1996, is a niece of Donald E. Graham, the chairman and chief executive of the Washington Post Company, and the granddaughter of Katharine Graham, the head of the company for three decades until her death in 2001.

For the last three years, Ms. Weymouth has been vice president of The Post in charge of advertising, a critical area in a time of declining ad revenue across the industry.

Boisfeuillet Jones Jr., who has been publisher of The Post since 2000, will become vice chairman of the company and chairman of the newspaper.

“What’s important is that the person who holds it be very capable,” he said of the publisher’s post. “It’s great that Katharine’s in the family, but it’s even greater that she has shown she is very good. She’s been in highly relevant jobs, and she’s been great at them.”

Ms. Weymouth, 41, a lawyer by training, will also become chief executive of Washington Post Media, a newly created unit of the company. The changes will take effect on Monday.

Industry analysts and people within the company say that Ms. Weymouth’s promotion makes her the probable heir to Mr. Graham, 62, as the chief of the company. No other family members of her generation are involved in the company, and Mr. Jones, at 61, is considered an unlikely successor.

When asked about succession, Mr. Graham said, “I’m going to be in my job for a while longer.”

The news release announcing the appointments also said that the newspaper would offer buyouts to some employees next month, though it did not say how many. Ms. Weymouth said some cuts would be in the newsroom.

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“I’m very clear-eyed about the task ahead of us,” she said. “It’s going to be really hard. But I think that we’re well positioned. We have incredible penetration, a great newspaper, a great Web site and great people.”

The Post is one of the nation’s leading papers; its Web site had 8.5 million readers in December, third among newspaper sites, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The printed paper ranks seventh in weekday circulation, at 635,000 as of mid-2007, and fourth in Sunday circulation, at 894,000.

The newspaper division, which consists primarily of The Post, is not highly profitable, but other parts of the company, like the Kaplan educational testing division, have fared much better.